It's a tough one. You could make the argument that big names joining are worth much more than unknown people writing great articles because they're attracting their big followings outside Steemit onto Steemit. At this stage, the platform needs growth and the unknown authors (even if they are talented) aren't solving the growth problem.

At some point, once you have critical mass the talent will need to be rewarded though. And you do run the risk of losing the great authors if it doesn't happen relatively soon.